G.J. Schrama - Böcker

Agricultural pollution (with nitrates and pesticides) is one of the biggest threats to drinking water resources. At many places regional and local water authorities, together with the water supply industry, are involved in preventive action aimed at farming practices. Three national case studies (Germany, The Netherlands, and the United Kingdom) analyze these efforts within the context of problematical national agricultural policy and the need to implement EU directives on water quality. Additional case studies cover the role of the European Union, while the same problem in a different setting is analyzed for the United States. The central question of how national and European governments can reinforce the control capacity of the actors at the regional and local level, is treated from the theoretical perspective of the policy network approach.

This book contains six studies on various national environmental policies and environment -oriented technology policy systems in Austria, Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands, Spain, and the United Kingdom, sandwiched between this introductory and a concluding chapter. These studies were conducted as part of the ENVINNO research project, "Towards an Integration of Environmental and Ecology-Oriented Technology Policy: Stimulus and Response in Environment Related Innovation Networks", which formed part of the Targeted Social and Economic Research (TSER) Programme of Directorate-General XII of the European Commission, now 1 Directorate-General for Research. We like to thank Mrs. Genevieve Zdrojewski of GD Directorate-General Research for her kind support of our research project. The project was carried out between 1998 and 2001 by research teams from the six countries. The co-ordinating institute was the Department of Environmental Economics and Management at the Vienna University of 2 Economics and Business Administration. At this place we want to mention all researchers involved in the ENVINNO project and we want to thank them all for their contributions to this book and the project and for the good time we have had performing the project and meeting each other at regular intervals in Vienna (A), Enschede (NL), Berlin (D), and Sevilla (E). Department of Environmental Economics and Management at the Vienna University of Economics and Business Administration in Austria: • Univ. Prof. Dr. Uwe Schubert, • Mag. Judith Kock, • Mag. Jiirgen Mellitzer, 1 Under contract-number SOEI-CT98-110S. 2 The project website is http://www.wu-wien.ac.atiwwwu/institute/iuwIENVINNO.

The book contains six studies of environmental and environment-oriented technology policy in several EU member states (Austria, Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands, Spain, and the United Kingdom) and the extent of inter-policy co-ordination and integration that has been achieved. The six national studies are sandwiched between an introductory and a concluding chapter. The national studies have been conducted as part of the EU research project, "Towards an Integration of Environmental and Ecology-Oriented Technology Policy: Stimulus and Response in Environment Related Innovation Networks" (in short: ENVINNO), which was carried out, between 1998 and 2001, by research teams from the six countries. In the introductory chapter the issue of 'environmental integration' within the European Union is also addressed, while the final chapter contains a synthesis of the characteristic elements of the six national studies that sheds light on a European framework of environment-oriented innovation stimulation.